Norman Finkelstein's new book,
The Holocaust Industry, which stirred a great
deal of debate and interest in Europe and Great Britain, is getting the
silent treatment here in the U.S.. In his book, Finkelstein accuses Jewish
organizations of exploiting the Holocaust for huge returns in reparation
settlements. He accuses the Industry of making big money, used to fund
Holocaust literature and studies programs, at the expense of holocaust
victims and survivors. He documents how these monies enrich the Jewish elite
and the Israeli state, not the survivors. Ironically, just last week these
same special interest groups sponsored a million dollar fund raising dinner
to celebrate their latest reparations award and to thank the politicians who
helped win it, including President Clinton and his wife.

Finkelstein's charges are damaging, so why aren't the Jewish special
interest groups publicly denouncing or rebutting his claims? Why aren't they
encouraging dialogue and civil discourse to repair their image and set the
record straight? Why are they all suddenly mute? Could it be because they
literally cannot afford to respond? This writer thinks so. Once these
special interest groups enter the public arena of debate, civil discourse
and free inquiry, they'll have to have a fire sale.

Here are some historical tid-bits, all of them verifiable, which put something of a dent in the
Holocaust story as we have all come to know and love it.

FACT: Germans, not just Nazis or military personnel, were hung or imprisoned
for crimes they were convicted of during the WWII war crimes trials. Please
note, in these famous trials which "proved" the Holocaust: Defense witnesses
were not allowed to testify, "eye witnesses" were not required to appear in
court and were not available for cross examination, defense documents were
severely limited or ignored entirely, there was no appeal system and
"confessions" were obtained through physical and psychological torture!

FACT: The following quote from a Communist War Crimes Report regarding the
mass extermination of Jews at Treblinka and Auschwitz was read into evidence
on December 14, 1945: "All victims had to strip off their clothes and shoes,
which were collected afterwards, whereupon all victims, women and children
first, were driven into the death chambers. . .small children were simply
thrown inside." In this case, the "death chambers" were steam chambers!

FACT: During the war crimes trials Germans were accused of parboiling,
frying, vacuuming, electrocuting, roasting, gassing, steaming and vaporizing
Jews to death. They were also accused of murdering Jews with portable "brain
bashing" machines and in "gas vans". (None of the murder weapons were
produced for the court to see, nor has anyone in the 50 plus years since
provided proof of any of these murder weapons.) The Germans were accused of
making human soap. They were accused of making human-skin riding breeches,
ladies handbags and lampshades. They were accused of using gold teeth
extracted from Jewish corpses to finance the war!
The German people, not just the Nazi regime, has been cast as uniquely
monstrous for more than fifty years, while the Holocaust Industry of which
Finkelstein writes, has extorted billions of dollars from Germany, the U.S.
and other countries because the Jewish suffering during WWII was "unique."
Or was it?

To ask this question is illegal in many countries. During the past 30 years
laws have been passed to ensure an iron-clad silence on this one historical
event. Laws have been passed to prohibit the use of the term holocaust for
any genocide other than the Jewish genocide. To question aspects of the
holocaust in Germany is to violate laws against inciting racial hatred. Even
here, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, asking a simple
question about this historical era will see you branded as a hateful,
racist, neo-nazi, anti-Semitic Holocaust Denier, which is never good for one
's social life or career. If you are Jewish and you dare to question the
Industry, as in Finkelstein's case, you are chastised as a self-hating Jew.
Intellectual freedom, open inquiry and public debate are absolutely taboo on
a subject that won't go away, but which we aren't allowed to discuss. This
is worse than unethical. It's extortion and the Holocaust Industry special
interest groups are the extortionists.

It is the opinion of this writer that it is high time for more men of honor,
like Norman Finkelstein, to stand up to the Industry and say "Enough money!"
The war has been over for half a century. Let it go. The German people (and
countless others) have paid and paid and paid. So have U.S. taxpayers. We
spent millions to build the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and now we're
spending tens of millions per year to maintain it. Why?! I should think U.S.
taxpayers would have preferred to keep this money in their pockets, or at
least have it go to something a bit more urgent. Education, perhaps?

It is also time to replace the intellectual tyranny that reigns over The
Holocaust with intellectual freedom, and to absolve the German people of
those heinous crimes of which they have been falsely accused for more than
fifty years. The Industry must stop teaching Holocaust Studies students that
the Germans melted fat from Jewish corpses to make soap! (This vulgar
accusation is still being taught in some U.S. and European schools and is
still being circulated on the Internet!) Why does the Holocaust Industry
need to perpetuate monstrous lies? Could it be the money?

The Industry complains that free inquiry and open debate are an assault on
the memory of the dead. I strongly disagree. NOT allowing inquiry and debate
is an assault on the memory of the dead. The Jewish dead are being
exploited and the German dead have been unjustifiably disgraced. All other
mortal victims of the war, including American GI's, have been irreverently
forgotten by the Holocaust Industry. This is unethical, immoral and
absolutely un-American. Let us not forget that Americans fought in WWII
against just this kind of tyranny-a tyranny that suppressed thoughts,
opinions and beliefs counter to those of the State. We sent our boys to
fight and die to protect freedom and liberty from such tyranny. It is time
to restore our moral integrity, that those who fell in battle did not die in
vain.